Ao No Exorcist A Wilk's Tale: The Reason for Sadness
by TheBidiba
Summary: A continuation of a Wilk's Tale and A Wilk in Kyoto. Spies, double agents, the Illuminati, Luna cannot take it anymore so she goes into hiding. When she happens upon a Cram School classmate by accident they remind her of what it truly means to be an exorcist. Convincing her to come back out of hiding and to jump back into the fire.
1. Chapter 1

Clapping can be heard from across the room. "Mephesto your talents could practically be called magic."

Suguro had a face of pure shock and excitement, "L-Lightening!" he could hardly get it out.

"That's right. Lewin Light at your service. My friends and colleagues call me Lightening." He looks at the students and then walks up to Rin. "So this is the child of Satan I've been hearing about. I've been waiting to meet you." He eyes him up and down. "A little smaller than I thought he would be. Completely unremarkable he looks just like a normal teen. No matter, it's what we can't see that will show us your worth."

Rin blushes in embarrassment from being called out.

Lewin looks over to Suguro and sizes him up with a smile. Then he looks at Luna. His face turns grave and he looked as if he saw a ghost. "Oh my! Looking at you my dear makes me feel like I've traveled back in time. You look just like Aurora Ward."

"Aurora Ward was my mother." Wilk tells him.

"That explains the likeness. We worked together for a long time, before her death. All of our research funds were pulled when she was proved to be a traitor to the order. Your father served the order to the end and his justice upon your mother was quick. He didn't even give her time to explain herself. Not that it matters. There were no questions of whom his loyalties were to." Lewin watches Wilk's face go into shock and then harden into anger. He then looks at his hand. "It's a shame, your mother was really onto something. Her work would have benefited us a great deal. How old were you when that happened? Eight?" Lewin asks

Luna looks down at the ground ringing her hands at her side. "Nine sir."

"Then that would make you fifteen am I right?"

Luna clenches her fists and nods her head.

"Good, you have your father's wits about you. I hope they serve you well." Lewin looks back at Mephesto. "So sorry we got off topic. We are here to discuss Renzo Shima. We need to know if he is a traitor of the Order. We will start the trial of your peers."

Shima looks around nervously.

"Does anyone think he is still dependable?" Lewin says after a long pause.

"What happens if we find him not to be trustworthy?" asks Konekomaru.

"Then I'll take him back to the Order and we will torture him until he tells us everything about the Illuminati. It's best we don't sic the wolf on him just yet." Lewin looks at Wilk again, she just stares at the floor. He then looks at the rest of the students.

Suguro sets his jaw and glares at Shima. "I trust him. If he says he is a spy working for Mephesto under the guise of an Illuminati agent I believe him."

"So do I!" Says Konekomaru

"Konekomaru has the best judge of character I know." Says Moryama, "If he trust Shima I do too."

"He may be a real idiot but I trust him." Says Kamiki.

"We are friends and I trust him." Says Rin.

Wilk looks up at Shima and stares at him. He won't look her in the eye. "Shima is a Mischief-maker… and if there is anything I've learned about him he loves a good practical joke. So I trust that this is going to be one of his best." Wilk finally says. Shima looks up at Wilk as she looks away. She has a gut wrenching feeling in the pit of her stomach. 'Did I only say that so they wouldn't torture him? I wonder if my father felt something similar when he found out my mother was a traitor. Oh God… Shima, you were my friend.'

"Very well! Renzo Shima you have been found to not be a traitor of the order by your peers." Lewin says with a smile.

"Thank you exwires that will be all." Says Mephesto with a snap.

The entire group is transported to the school's courtyard except for Shima and Mr. Okumara.

"What the hell was that?" Demands Suguro.

"Apparently a trial of peers." Says Konekomaru.

"He better not be an Illuminati agent," Says Wilk, "Or I'll kill him myself." She walks away from the group vexed and steaming. Then she stops for a moment and looks over her shoulder. "Just like my father had to kill my treacherous mother."

"Wilk you don't mean that!" yells Konekomaru

Wilk turns to look at him. Her eyes shine with rage. "I would kill anyone who we know to be a traitor. Any who stands in the way of the Order will atone for their sins. If I'm not willing to do that, what good am I?" She then turns back to go in the direction of the dorms.

"Wilk!" Konekomaru starts to follow her but Suguro stops him by grabbing his shoulder.

"Koneko, she just found out her mother was an Illuminati agent and that her father was the exorcist that was responsible for carrying out her death sentence. Let's give her time to process that and blow off some steam. You know how passionate she is. Her head will clear soon." He looks at Wilk as she walks away. "I remember being like that when the people of the village would pass judgment on the temple and call it cursed. She may never change her mind about Shima but at least now she has a resolve."

"You don't really think she'd kill Shima do you?" Says Rin. "I mean he didn't kill Kamiki's summons but he had the opportunity to. So maybe he is really a spy."

"I don't know how much I trust him but you are right Okumara. He could have easily banished Mike and Ike but he held back." Kamiki squeezes her summoning papers.


	2. Chapter 2

Luna gets to her room and pulls out the piece of paper her Uncle Igor gave her with his contact information. She dials the number and it rings until the line cuts out. She hangs up her phone and throws it on her bed yelling angrily. Her phone rings a moment later. She looks at the caller ID. It's an unregistered number.

"Uncle Igor?" She runs her hand through her hair.

"Luna! Are you alright?" His voice is muffled but she can hear the concern in it.

"No, I'm not alright. I met Lewin Light today." Her voice is angry but calm.

"Oh, Shit."

"How long have you known?"

"Luna I…"

"How long have you known Uncle Igor? That my mother was an Illuminati agent using my father as a guinea pig?"

He takes a deep breath before answering her. "We suspected she was an Illuminati agent a year before her death sentence was carried out."

"Why didn't you tell me the truth?" Luna is yelling into the phone at this point.

"Luna, you had already gone through so much. I just couldn't bear to see you cry for your mother and father every night asking me when they would be back to get you. So when I thought that you were ready to read your father's suicide letter I decided to omit your mother being an Illuminati agent, because I wanted you to be able to believe in someone. Even if that someone wasn't who you thought they were."

"I believed in 'You", Uncle Igor. Why wasn't that ever enough for you? You always had to push me away. You pushed me away because I'm the offspring of monsters." She yells in the phone.

"Luna you know that's not true. We are the only family each other have. I pushed you away because I wanted you to be strong and self-reliant. Perhaps that was a mistake." He cuts out for a moment.

"Uncle Igor! Uncle Igor, wait! There is more I have to tell you! I'm not safe here anymore. Will you come get me?"

"Luna I can't."

"Please Uncle Igor. Just let me train under you. I can't stay here."

"Luna…"

"You don't understand! They found me and they want to use me like they did my father!"

"What! How did they find you?"

"The head of the Illuminati, Lucifer came to declare war on The Order of the True Cross. One of our fellow students was an Illuminati spy and he must have told them about me."

"Who was it Luna. Who was the spy?"

"Renzo Shima."

"Renzo Shima? Not Rin Okumara?"

"No, Rin was pissed and nearly killed him until President Faust told us Shima was a double agent."

"President Faust did, hm?"

"Please Uncle Igor I don't feel safe here anymore. Shima has been admitted back into the school and I just…" She starts to hyper ventilate. "I just want my daddy!" She breaks down into tears.

Luna's dorm room door opens and she sees her Uncle standing on the other side holding the door handle. The skeleton key that Mephisto issued him in the lock. She runs up and hugs him.

"Will your Uncle do instead?"

Luna holds him tight and shakes her head. "I'm so scared. The things mom helped make for the Illuminati were truly disturbing. They weren't even human anymore. The werewolves they showed me were like men and wolves Frankensteined together. The way they thrashed in their cages was horrible. I don't want to end up like that. I don't want to be a wolf in a cage."

"It's ok Luna. Everything will be fine now. Grab your books and whatever else you need. I'll tell President Faust that you will be apprenticing under me. That is until we can know that you are safe going back."

Luna grabs her book bag all of her cram school textbooks and some clothing before running into the darkness of the space where her Uncle had unlocked the entrance to her room.

He shuts the door behind her.

Luna looks around and sees nothing, but she can smell old books.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Luna stands next to the summoning circle on the floor. She uses a small pocket knife to pierce her middle finger. Blood falls onto the symbols of the circle. Luna puts her finger in her mouth to stop the bleeding.  
"Alright Luna. Now focus and pull the words from deep within to summon a demon." Says her Uncle Igor Neuhaus as he stood on the platform in the room above her.  
Luna takes a deep breath. "As the moon causes the sea to ebb and flow I invoke thee tiger of the river, Kowatora."  
Out from the summoning circle rises a great tsunami wave and riding atop a tiger like humanoid creature. "I hear you call to me. What might I get in return for my service?"  
Luna is thrown off guard by the question. She thinks very carefully before giving her reply. "You may have the color of my wolf's fur. Its silvery grey color rivals the waters ripples as it shines in the full moons light."  
Kowatora lowers the wave so that he stands in the middle of the summoning circle and is eye level with Luna, he nods his head. "Your description entices me. I accept. From now on I will serve you and I will take the color of your wolf's fur in exchange. May I see my prize?"  
Luna nods and calls forth her wolf. She no longer needs blood to do so only a summoning paper. Her wolf puts its paw gently on the summoning paper and howls. "Ryuuuu!"  
Kowatora smiles and sends a funnel of water over that washes Luna's wolf's fur from its silvery grey color to snow white.  
Luna notices that her hair starts to turn white as well. "Hey, our deal was only for my wolf's fur color! Stop or I will banish you." She shouts angrily to Kowatora.  
He is startled by her tone and recoils his water funnel. "I got too excited." He bows. "Only a little of your beautiful silt brown hair color have I taken. Let me have it in exchange for another favor."  
Luna's wolf growls. "You think you are smart water demon. I will exchange nothing else. You have already promised to serve me. Now make good on your promise."  
He frowns and nods his head. Knowing now she could not be out smarted. A small cloud floats over to Luna and replaces all the color the demon had removed except for a three centimeter strip on either side of her head by her temples.  
Luna looks at those strands of hair. "This is not how my hair was." Her tone strict.  
Kowatora diverts his eyes. "I cannot return that portion as it is linked to your wolf's fur somehow."  
Luna has her wolf tear the summoning paper pulling it back into her chest. She folds her arms and walks up to the summoning circle. "Tell me why I shouldn't banish you now Kowatora. If you cannot keep a simple pact then I will exorcize you right now."  
"No!" It falls to one knee. "I promise to come to you and listen as the water crashes upon the shore. Please do not exorcize me."  
Luna nods her head unfolding her arms. "Very well I accept your promise you may go now."  
Kowatora lowers his body in a bow and vanishes under a title wave in the summoning circle.  
She looks to her Uncle Igor. "That was not what I expected at all."  
"You did well Luna. I was worried you couldn't be strict enough with that demon for a moment there. The Kowatora are strong water demons."  
Luna smiles confidently, "My friends at the cram school have taught me to stand up and take action." Luna looks at the summoning circle. It's been a month since she's left the cram school to be in hiding with her uncle. She wishes she could summon them all to her now, perhaps even Shima if he would leave the Illuminati. She tries and sets her mind back to the task at hand. "Uncle Igor, how many demons can you summon?"  
"At a time?"  
"No, how many do you have in your repertoire?"  
"Four, why?"  
"I was wondering what I should strive for."  
"Don't worry about that too much. More is not necessarily better. Focus instead on knowing the limits of your familiar or demon and especially your own limits."

Luna nods her head. "I want to try one more today."  
Neuhaus looks her up and down. "You look a little peaked maybe we should have some lunch first."  
She shakes her head. "I'm fine. I have an incantation that's spinning around in my head that I need to try. Can you help me reset the summoning circle?"  
Her Uncle stares at her concerned about her wellbeing. "I will reset the circle right now. You go into the kitchen and make yourself a sandwich to regain some of your stamina. You cannot do a proper summoning in your state." He finally says to her sternly.  
Luna sighs heavily. "Fine."  
Neuhaus comes down the stairs as Luna walks through the library into the small doorway of the kitchen. The floor boards creek under Luna's feet. She rolls her eyes talking to the floor. "Awe come on, I don't weigh that much!" She walks up to the fridge and opening it leans in. "What kind of sandwich do I want? Hmm..." looking over to the counter she sees a can of sardines. "Mmm...Sardine sandwiches coming up."  
Luna grabs the bread, mustard and lettuce out of the fridge. Proceeding to make two sandwiches one for herself and one for her uncle. She takes a big bite of her sandwich as she plates her uncle's sandwich on her way out the door. Back in the summoning room she sees her uncle is drawing the last few symbols on her circle with his giant protractor.  
"How's it coming?"  
He looks up from his work. "Nearly done."  
Luna offers him the plate. "I made you a sandwich too. You like sardines right?"  
"Yes, I do. Hang on a second." He puts the finishing touches on the last symbol. "There we are." He takes his sandwich from her. "What kind of sandwich did you make yourself?"  
Luna opens her sandwich showing him the contents.  
"I thought you hated sardines." He says to her as he takes a bite of his sandwich.  
Luna looks at her sandwich. "Yeah, normally I would avoid them, but it just sounded so good."  
"Sometimes that will happen with summons. There was a guy back in America that could summon a salamander and every time he did he would crave barbecue afterwards."  
Luna smiles and swallows the last bit of her sandwich. "That's kind of funny. I wonder what Kamiki craves after summoning her foxes and Shiemi after her greenman, or Suguro..." Luna becomes quiet and her happy energy is zapped away as she thinks about her friends again. "I don't think I'm up for doing another summoning right now Uncle Igor. I'm going to lay down for a bit."  
He looks at her face. "Are you okay Luna?"  
She nods her head and walks to her room.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Luna sits on her bed and looks at the card that Suguro made her on her second day of class. Such a small act of kindness and yet it means so much to her. She feels so mixed up inside. Rubbing her middle finger on one of the sakura flowers she thinks of Suguro's comment about it just not being right. "I don't know what you're talking about Suguro, its perfect."  
There is a knock on Luna's door.  
"Luna, can I come in?" Calls her uncle Igor Neuhaus from the other side of the door.  
"Yes, it's open." Luna puts the card under her pillow as her uncle opens the door. "Do you want to talk about something?" Luna asks.  
He walks in sitting on a chair close to her bed. "What's wrong Luna? You were gung-ho just a moment ago about summoning another demon and now you're tired all of a sudden."  
"I just… really miss my friends." Luna says kicking her foot against the bed.  
Neuhaus nods his head. "Time will make it easier and someday the pain will fade." He whispers to himself. 'Someday the pain will fade.' He stares off in the distance with his good eye and his face turns troubled. He mouths Michelle's name.  
Luna reaches out and squeezes his hand. "Someday Uncle Igor you will be reunited."  
He looks down at Luna and squeezes it back. Clearing his throat he says. "Well, go ahead and take another fifteen minutes and we'll start our demonology course for the day."  
Luna nods her head. "Okay"  
Neuhaus stands up from the chair.  
"Uncle Igor."  
He looks at her, "Yes Luna?"  
"I'm sorry I made you sad."  
"You didn't make me sad Luna. If anything you are my one true joy in life still, but sometimes life is sad and the life of an exorcist... well it's just even sadder at times."

Luna looks at her pillow and her uncle follows her gaze, seeing Luna's card poking out from underneath it. He then looks at her night stand and sees the picture of her and her classmates at Kyoto Tower. "Fifteen minutes Luna." He says again and walks through the door.

Luna hears him rattle some keys. She sneaks around the corner to see him put a skeleton key in a doorway and unlock it to a room that didn't belong in the library. She quietly shadows him through the doorway without him noticing.

The room is cold and she can see snow in the windows swirling in the wind. Neuhaus heads down a hallway and Luna follows. The hallway opens up to a large room with an incubator of some sort. Neuhaus kneels down next to it and runs his hands over a glass window on it. Luna realizes it's a cryogenic freezer and sees a face in the window.

She puts her hand over her mouth as she quietly gasps to herself. "Uncle Igor, is that… is that Aunt Michelle?"

Neuhaus starts to talk. "Michelle you should see our niece. She is so grown up now, and yet still a child in many ways."

Luna grumbles at the comment quietly.

"Her head waivers back and forth from the past to the future and I don't know how to help her. I struggle with some of the things she is sad about myself. If only I could talk with you about it. What I wouldn't do to hear your voice one more time." He presses his forehead on the glass as he sighs sadly. "I miss you Michelle."

Luna desperately wants to go up to her uncle to comfort him but thinks better of it. Instead she quietly walks back down the hallway and into the library. She stands at the doorway and calls out. "Uncle Igor? It's been fifteen minutes."

She hears something rattle down the hallway. "I'll be right there Luna."

"Ok." She sighs, 'I need to be happier around my uncle he's been through so much too. I can't forget that.' She calls down the hallway again. "Uncle Igor, I changed my mind I want to try that other summoning now. I'll meet you in the summoning room."

"What?" She hears him say.

"I'm going to try and do another summoning." She yells down the hallway louder.

"I'll be right there. Don't start without me." He yells.

Luna walks into the room with the summoning circle. She can smell the chalk that her uncle used to draw it. She thinks about her incantation and murmurs it to herself while waiting for her uncle.

She hears his footsteps behind her. "Alright Luna go ahead." He says as he ascends the stairs to the platform.

Luna pricks her finger and drops her blood onto the circle. She closes her eyes and speaks the words on her heart. "Abandoned and forgotten children of the Lullaby, come forth Jizō."

She opens her eyes to see a man cloaked in a golden kimono rising from the ground holding a khakkhara laced with incense. "I call forth the children abandoned and forgotten to a peaceful place so that their souls may not wonder on this land. Why do you call me to thee?"

"I seek a peaceful existence here in Assiha. As an orphan I call on to your spiritual strength which benefits my cause. I would be honored if you would join me." Luna says much more confident now than with the last summoning.

"What would I get in return?" He asks.

"I will sing to the children you call forth so that they feel cherished and safe."

Jizō looks at Luna intently. "Sing to me orphan and I will seal our pact."

Luna clears her throat and starts to sing. _"Oh little children come to my voice and seek another path. Life has been hard on you, it's in the past. Come seek another path. Oh little children a home will I give you, come to my voice and I will give you rest."_

Jizō nods smiling. "So be it. Your song will call those abandoned children to their final resting place."

Luna bows, "Thank you."

Jizō bows back, "The children will be grateful. I thank you." The smoke from his incense consumes him and he disappears in it, leaving only the smell of jasmine flowers and myrrh.

Luna sits on the bottom stair. "Now I'm really tired." She takes a deep breath.

Neuhaus comes down the stairs next to her. "I think its tea time."

Luna smiles, "Tea sounds great.

"And then demonology." Neuhaus says.

Luna sticks out her tongue.

Neuhaus pats her head. "I'll start the kettle."

Luna slowly gets up and follows her uncle Neuhaus into the kitchen. She boosts herself up to sit on the counter. "Do you want to go to church with me tomorrow Uncle Igor?"

He turns from the stove. "Get off the counter. That's not what it's made for."

Luna slides off the counter.

He smirks and rubs his eyebrow. "Church huh? I have something to get to tomorrow. You'll just have to say a prayer for me."

Luna frowns, "That's what you said last week. It's important that we practice our faith so that we are able to carry out our exorcisms properly."

Neuhaus nods his head and grabs the tea from the cupboard. "You're right. I'll make sure that I go with you next week."

Luna crosses her arms. "You promise?"

He turns to her and crosses his heart. "I promise next week I will accompany you to church."

"And tonight we'll say a rosary together?"

Her uncle laughs. "Yes we can say a rosary together tonight. Now why don't you go get your demonology book and we'll work on it in the sitting room."

Luna does as he says and as she passes the kitchen again with her book she hears her Uncle Neuhaus talking. "She's just like you Michelle. Always reminding me to walk the straight and narrow path."

Luna sighs and shakes her head talking to herself. 'I hope it's a good thing that I remind you of Aunt Michelle Uncle Igor.'


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

The front door creaks open. Luna's muffled voice can be heard warm and lively from the entry way. "Uncle Igor I'm back from Roppongi. Sister Francis sent a coffee cake for you. She wanted to thank you for banishing the demons that were infesting her sink and she would like you to come out and have dinner with her sometime." Luna comes around the corner and sees the backs of the heads of her uncle's two guests. "Oh Uncle Igor you didn't tell me we were expecting company." Luna bows, "Pardon my interruption. Should I make tea?"  
Lightning turns in his chair to look at her. "Tea would be fine but coffee would be even better." He smiles at Luna. "How's the wolf today?"  
Luna wants to curse him out but she refrains. "The moon is early in its cycle, which makes my wolf quiet. So please call me Wilk." She says through her teeth. "I'll see what I can do about some coffee." She turns and heads towards the kitchen.  
Suguro shakes his head at Lightning, "You shouldn't call her a wolf. She's human like the rest of us."  
Lightning turns back to look at Neuhaus, "No, she's a werewolf and there is no reason for her to be so sensitive about it."  
Suguro grits his teeth rather than question his teacher any further.  
"Suguro, why don't you go help Luna in the kitchen while we talk." Suggests Neuhaus.  
Suguro nods his head and gets up from his chair.

"Lightening we have known each other a long time. I would appreciate it if you would be more respectful to my niece." Says Neuhaus.

Suguro approaches the kitchen and leans on the door jamb. He watches Luna rinse out the teapot. She fills a kettle with cold water and puts it on the stove using a match too light it. Suguro shifts his position and the floor boards' creek underneath him.  
"Is that you Uncle Igor?" Luna says without turning around.

Suguro is silent.

"What is Lightning doing here anyway? Has he come to brag about being the new taming teacher, or has he come to chastise me again for my unfortunate relations? And who is that with him? The next in line to the Arch Knight come to analyze me. They've probably come to make sure that I'm not an Illuminati sympathizer. Just because my mother was a traitor doesn't mean I am, or ever will be for that matter." Luna takes the cake from the bag, pulls a knife out of the drawer next to her and starts to cut the cake into slices. "I'm sorry, I just needed to get that off my chest." She sighs, "Will you grab a couple of plates and the tray from over there? It's on the top shelf. I can't reach it."  
Suguro looks at where she nodded too. He grabs four plates and four teacups setting them on the tray. He then brings the tray over and sets it on the counter next to her.  
"Thank you." Luna says without looking over.  
"You're welcome"  
Luna drops the knife and turns quickly to look at who is standing next to her. "Suguro?!" Startled she takes a step back. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm here with Lightening."

"Why?"

"I'm his apprentice."

Luna blinks in disbelief.

"I can see you aren't happy to see me." He frowns at her.

Luna puts up her hands defensively. "No, I am happy to see you Suguro, but I wish it were under different circumstances."  
Suguro takes a step towards her speaking softly. "We are not here to question you about being an Illuminati sympathizer. We're here to see your uncle to ask him if he knows how to exorcize zombies like the ones that the Illuminati created."  
Luna looks down and fidgets with her hands. "He does know a lot about the undead, but those zombies are so different than anything I've ever read about. If I hadn't experienced it first-hand..." Luna shivers. "What about the werewolves that were made from my mother's research? Will you be doing an investigation on those too?"  
"What do you mean? There weren't any werewolves at the Inari Factory." Suguro leans his elbow against the counter to look at Luna's face.  
Luna grasps at the edge of the counter. "When we were separated in the factory a voice came over the loudspeaker of my cell, and told me all about my mother's research. Then they showed me a pent-up half man half wolf she had helped create. Such a nightmare." Luna shakes her head. "I can't believe my mother would do something so horrific and with my father's DNA no less. My father and I will always be viewed by the world as monsters, but I now know the truth. She was the real monster. How could she be so heartless?"

Suguro grasps Luna's hand from the counters edge and pulls it close to him. "You are not a monster!"  
She pulls her hand away. "Your precious Lightning would beg to differ. How can you work with someone like that? He has absolutely no human compassion."  
"All the more reason for me to work with him. I do my best to remind him to show compassion even if he doesn't feel it."  
"And to wash..." Luna wrinkles her nose.  
Suguro laughs, "Yeah, sometimes I wonder who the adult is in some situations." He stands up pushing himself away from the counter and grasps Luna's hand again. "Luna, I meant what I said in Kyoto. I don't want there to be a barrier between us. I can't protect you if you are on the opposite side of my shield." Luna looks up into his eyes and pulling her hand away from him again keeps them both at her side. Suguro sighs. "Please Luna I…"  
Luna looks away. "So much has happened since then Suguro. We can't make the same promises now that we did then."  
He frowns, "Why not? What does it matter who your mother was? She is in your past you need to look to your future."  
"How do I do that?" Luna looks down to the ground.  
Suguro smiles, "Fight. Become an exorcist and fight." He puts his hands on her shoulders.

Luna's body becomes less rigid as Suguro pulls her into a hug. She gasps, "Ryuji?"

As he is still holding her he says, "There now. I knew you could do it."

"Do what?"

"Call me by my first name again."

He loosens his grip and pulls back his body looking at her. He then leans his head against her forehead forcing her to look into his eyes.

Luna blushes, "Please stop. You're confusing me."

Suguro leans away from her arching an eye brow. "How am I confusing you?"

Luna's heart starts to race and she ignores her instincts to stop. Running her hands down his arms watching them as they glide against his sleeves. "I Um, thought…" She stops, trying to find the words.

Suguro brushes a tendril of hair out of her face and gently slides it into place. "You thought?"  
"Am I interrupting something?"  
"Uncle Igor!" Luna shies away and Suguro releases her from his grasp. "I'm sorry we were talking and I didn't realize the kettle was boiling. I'll be right out with the tea and coffee for Lightning."  
Neuhaus looks at Suguro suspiciously, "Talking? Is that what they call it these days?" He shifts his head to signal behind him. "Lightning is asking for your presence before we proceed any further."  
"Yes Mr. Neuhaus." He nods his head and walks towards Neuhaus. "That was my doing. Don't be mad at Luna."  
Neuhaus nods again to the exit and Suguro goes but not before he looks over his shoulder at Luna again.  
"Just friends huh Luna?"  
"Uncle Igor let me explain. It's not what it looks like."  
He shakes his head. "No Luna, I can't stop you from having a life, but if you want to be an exorcist you can't let your mind be clouded by your emotions."  
Luna's uncle's statement infuriates her. "Clouded by my emotions? I find out that my father killed my mother because she is an agent for the Illuminati and you're worried about me getting all mixed up about hugging Ryuji Suguro? How would that change my drive to be an exorcist? Maybe Ryuji would instill a better work ethic in me. He is the hardest working student in our class! He knows arias backwards and forwards, nearly every death verse and is a Crack Shot even if he doesn't wield a weapon to show it off! Not to mention Lightning was impressed by him enough to take him on as his apprentice. Even if I don't care for Lightning's personality he is a remarkable exorcist."  
Neuhaus's face snarls and then slowly softens. "I don't like it… but ok."  
Luna feels embarrassed for her outburst towards her uncle. "I'm sorry I said it that way. Thank you for understanding Uncle Igor." She says as she walks over to hug him.

He wraps his arms around her and kisses the top of her head. "I'm not ready for you to grow up so fast." He sighs, "I need to get back to my meeting. Tea and coffee." He waves his hand for her to go back into the kitchen.  
Luna sets to work and Neuhaus goes back to his guests.


	6. Chapter 6

**6 Chapter**

Luna carries the tray of beverages and cake to the center of the room. Neuhaus pulls a heavy table over from the far side of the room for her to put it on. Luna pours a cup of coffee and hands it to Lightning. "Is black okay?" Luna asks.  
Lightning takes the cup, "Black is fine. So you think these creatures are a different category of zombie?" He takes a sip of coffee and listens to Neuhaus's reply.  
"You're welcome." Luna says rolling her eyes at Lightning. "Ryuji do you want coffee or tea?"  
"Coffee please, black." She pours his cup and hands it to him. He touches her hand while taking the cup and mouths 'I'm sorry'.  
She mouths back to him 'It's ok'.

He smiles and she smiles back.

"Thank you Luna."  
"Hmm, oh yes thank you." Replies Lightening finally.  
Luna nods her head. "Uncle Igor would you like your usual, tea with cream?"  
"Yes, thank you."  
Luna hands everyone a piece of Sister Francis's coffee cake. She pours herself some tea and starts to head out of the room.  
"Where are you going?" Asks Lightning.  
Luna turns back confused, "I was going to sit in the other room and study. This conference doesn't involve me."  
"Who says it doesn't? Consider this your taming homework from me. Come tell me about your experience in the Inari factory."  
Luna looks at Lightning carefully. "Okay." She sits in the seat next to her uncle. "The creatures seemed like ghouls at first but Mr. Okumura quickly realized that they were a type of zombie shortly after we were attacked by one of them."  
"And they wouldn't die?" Says Lightning.  
"Right, they had amazing regenerative properties. Like some demons do."  
"Hmm... Interesting." He takes a sip of coffee.  
Luna looks at Suguro. He motions for her to speak further. She bites her lip and looks back at Lightening. "And there were werewolves there too."  
"Werewolves!? That wasn't in Mr. Okumura's report."  
"No, I didn't tell anyone at the time. They were part of my mother's experiments."  
Lightning's eyes flash under his thick bangs. "I see so someone continued Aurora's experiments after her death. For what purpose I wonder." He looks at Neuhaus.

Neuhaus takes a sip of his tea and looks back at Lightening shaking his head no.  
Luna answers Lightening, "I don't know but they were nothing like what my father and I are. These were deformed humans with wolf characteristics. Truly terrifying."  
Lightening rubs his jaw with his index finger and thumb. "The Illuminati must be using these creatures as weapons, but they can't be the same subjects your mother was working on. It sounds like these creatures might have been spliced together the way you are describing it."  
Suguro leans in toward Luna to engage her attention, "Splicing DNA to make the ultimate weapon. Did they have regenerative qualities too?"  
"Honestly I don't know. They were aggressive though, thrashing against their cages trying to get to me. Fortunately I didn't have to defend myself against them."

"Thank God for that." Says Neuhaus patting his niece on the shoulder.  
"Why didn't they set the werewolves on you?" Asks Lightning  
Suguro puts his coffee cup on the table, "Yeah, I wonder why too. The rest of us were attacked by the zombies at that time."  
Luna looks down at the ground and shuffled her feet before answering. "They wanted to recruit me as a willing participant to their lab experiments. That's the reason I went into hiding with Uncle Igor. I figured I would be safer that way. Especially with Shima being admitted back into the Exorcist program even though he's a double agent."  
"You think he would jeopardize your safety to get ahead in the Illuminati?" Suguro asks while Luna fills his empty coffee cup.  
"I wouldn't put it past him. After what he did to Izumo Kamiki, putting her in such a dangerous position. Honestly if her mother wouldn't have been there to intervene we probably would have had to kill her to banish Nine Tails."

Suguro grabs his mouth with one hand and exhales angrily. "He's not to be trusted on our end that's for sure."

Lightening scratches his head. "I thought you two cleared him when we had the trial of his peers."

Luna looks at Lightening. "I told you I trusted him as a prankster. That doesn't mean I'll put my life in his hands. He'll do whatever he has to do to get ahead on both sides of this endeavor."

"I see." Lightening takes a sip of coffee. "I think Luna should come out of hiding, and Suguro you should find out as much as you can about the werewolves from Shima. If he thinks that Luna has confided in you maybe he'll tell you more than he should."

Neuhaus shakes his head angrily. "I don't think that's a good idea. You can't just put my niece at risk like that to be a science experiment like her father was."

Luna puts her hand on Neuhaus's knee. "What choice do we have Uncle Igor? We need to find out what the Illuminati is planning." She removes her hand and leans back toward Lightening. "I'll do whatever it takes to help you."

Lightening smiles, "I knew I liked you Wolf."

Suguro clears his throat. "Luna, I'll do whatever I can to protect you."

"Wait, protect her? Did you just call her Luna?" Lightening looks back and forth between them. "Oh geez!" He slaps his hand on his forehead and then fills his coffee cup. "Maybe I should talk to Shima instead. You might not be able to convince him that Wilk is going to join the Illuminati with those puppy dog lovie dovie eyes of yours."

Suguro sneers at him, "Neither Luna or I are making puppy dog eyes at each other. Besides if he thinks I'm switching side's maybe he'll be more convinced if I try and seduce Luna rather than bully her into joining. If I've learned anything from that rotten no good friend of mine I've learned how to lie."

Neuhaus leans in towards Suguro and grabs his knee giving it a squeeze sending a shock up his body. "Seducing my niece huh? Like you were in the kitchen."

Suguro looks Neuhaus straight in the eye. "I would never do anything to put your niece at risk and that includes her reputation. Maybe I'll just hold her hand in his presents."

Luna grabs her uncle's arm and he releases Suguro's knee. "Shima is a bit of a pervert he'll be convinced by anything that suggest that Ryuji and I are an item."

"It's settled then. Wilk will come out of hiding and Suguro will pretend he is thinking about being an Illuminati agent to get Wilk in deeper." Lightening guzzles his coffee and sets the empty cup on the table. Standing he says, "I think it's time to go Suguro."

Suguro nods his head and stands. Luna and Neuhaus stand as well.

"I'll let President Faust know that you will be attending classes regularly again."

"Yes, Mr. Light, thank you." She nods her head.

Lightening walks out of the room and Neuhaus follows. Suguro walks up to Luna. "Are you sure about this?" He asks putting his hand on her shoulder.

She reaches up touching his hand. "No, but I believe in you, Ryuji Suguro."

He smiles leaning towards her a bit and for a split second Luna thinks he is going to kiss her but he doesn't. "I'll see you in class tomorrow Luna."

Luna nods her head. "Yes, could you do me a favor though?"

"What's that?"

"Could you give Lightening a bath before class? He is rank."

Suguro laughs patting her shoulder vigorously. "See you later Luna."

"Goodbye Ryuji." She sighs, 'I should have kissed him.' She punches the air and then cleans the table from the tea and coffee service.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

Luna turns the nob to the cram school classroom door for the first time in a month. She can hardly contain her excitement. As the door opens she can see all her old classmates sitting where they always sat.

Shiemi looks over to the door. "Luna!" She springs out of her seat running over to her, tripping on an invisible obstacle right before she gets to her. Luna catches her in a hug. "Luna, where have you been? I've missed you."

Luna closes her eyes. "I missed you too." Opening her eyes again she looks up over Shiemi's shoulder while still in her hug scanning the classroom finally gazing at Shima. "I had something I had to do but it's all taken care of now." She gives Shiemi a squeeze before releasing her.

Rin walks up beside them. "It's good to see you Wilk." He bumps fists with her.

"It's good to be seen." Luna smiles.

"Welcome back Wilk." Kamiki says

"Thanks Kamiki." Her smile widens as she walks into the classroom looking over at Takara.

"Hey, just keep walking." His pink bunny mouths.

Luna shakes her head. "Good to see you too Takara."

As she approaches her regular seat Konekomaru comes up behind her. "I'm glad you're back Luna. We've been worried about you."

Luna smiles at Konekomaru and bumps his arm. "We, do you have a mouse in your pocket?"

Konekomaru laughs as Luna leans closer to see into his shirt pocket. "I meant Bon and me."

"Oh! Where is Ryuji anyway?"

"He must have went to the restroom." Konekomaru looks at his empty chair.

"I'm sorry I worried you. How has Neko been? I told her I was coming back and she seemed really excited. I tried to talk to her about your time spent with her at the dance but she was tight lipped."

Konekomaru blushes, "It was nice until we had to go to work."

Luna nods and then turns to look at Shima again.

Shima looks up from a book. "Hey Wilk welcome back." He smiles but it doesn't seem sincere.

Suguro comes up behind them and stands next to Konekomaru. "Wilk I'm glad you're back. I've missed my running partner." He scratches the back of his neck. "You up for it tomorrow?"

Luna nods. "You know I'm always itching for a run. By the way I really like your new haircut. It makes you look so much more mature."

Suguro blushes, "Thanks my mom really likes it too."

Luna laughs, "Yeah, I bet she does."

Lightening walks into the classroom. "Alright class please sit. As you can see we have a new or be it a familiar face here today. I know you all know Wilk but she's a new student to me so in honor of that Wilk will you summon us something?"

Luna arches an eyebrow, "I'm sorry?"

"Call onto one of your familiars for us." Lightening tells her putting his books on the desk.

"I don't mean to be argumentative professor Light but wouldn't that be frivolous?"

He looks up through his bangs. "Perhaps you're right." He pulls out a cursed card from the Aria's matching game and summons a demonic peg lantern.

"What are you doing professor?" she asks stunned.

"I'm making it so it's not frivolous for you to summon something for us." He smiles challenging her.

As soon as Luna sees the peg lantern she knows that she needs to call on something with water or mold elemental attributes. Her mind quickly comes to the conclusion of what familiar she needs to summon and she pulls out a summoning paper and her pocket knife. Piercing her finger she stands and smears her blood on the circle.

"Ready? 1, 2." He then summons a group of sylphs simply by lighting his lighter. He nods his head to them and they light the peg lantern.

"As the moon causes the sea to ebb and flow I invoke thee tiger of the river, Kowatora!"

Kowatora rides in on a tsunami wave and it crashes behind her.

All of her classmates gasp frozen to their chairs.

Lightening's eyes widen behind his thick bangs and he smiles with delight.

"Dude Luna that's so cool." Says Rin.

"Sh!" Kamiki says, "Don't distract her. It would be a waste of energy. Summoning's are draining enough on their own."

The peg lantern starts charging at Luna. She stares it down and then calls out an action to her familiar. Turning and smiling at it she simply says. "Kowatora, snuff it out."

"With pleasure!" the Kowatora bows to her. It then charges a full frontal attack of water flowing like a river of white water rapids. As it approaches the lantern it snuffs out the lights of the sylphs bubbling and steaming all the way up until if finally crashes into the lantern itself. Not only instantly putting out the light of the peg lantern but also eroding the cement that the peg lantern was made of completely away.

Lightening laughs clapping his hands together complimenting Luna as she dismisses her Kowatora. "Wow Wilk! You don't disappoint. Kowatora's are some pretty tenacious midlevel demons. Neuhaus taught you well."

Luna rolls her eyes as she sloshes around in thirty centimeters of water. She then looks around realizing that the whole classroom is flooded. "Tenacious is right! I had no idea there would be so much water." Luna laughs as she sees everyone in their seats with their feet up on the desks or squatting up on their chairs. She reaches down and splashes Shiemi and Rin playfully. Kamiki must have gotten splashed too as she had released a little scream.

"Hey!" Rin says jumping into the water and splashing Luna back.

The boys behind her chuckle and she squeals at getting wet by Rin's protest.

Laughing Luna clasps her hands together over her heart. "I missed you guys so much!" With a wide smile she looks around the classroom one more time finally stopping at Suguro. He matches her gaze smiling warmly. Feeling her heart race and her cheeks flush she looks away realizing that the water was draining from the classroom rapidly.

Lightening had walked up to the door and used a skeleton key to drain the water onto a beach somewhere. He is still smiling while he talks. "Thank you for that display Wilk. You may sit down."

Luna smiles, "Thank you professor Light." She bows to him and sits.

Closing the door he calls out more sylphs to quickly dry the class room floor. "So class as you can see Wilk here is pretty friendly with her familiar. That is really important to keep in mind as more demons can relate to you that way. Don't forget that they are demons though and that you always have to be ready to bare your teeth to them and have the upper hand." Lightening sits at the desk grabs a paper from one of his books and leans back in his seat putting his feet up on the desk. His raggedy old army boots still have water dripping off the soles as the sylphs buzz around his feet drying them. He looks at the paper. "Alright let's study the demonic table of elements. What two elements are best to ward off a spirit demon?" He looks up from the paper. "Rin."

"Ah, I'm not sure."

"I'll give you a hint one is sitting at your desk right now." Lightening looks over at Shiemi.

Rin looks over. "Um… Girls?"

Luna hears Shima suppress a laugh from the back of the classroom. It makes her quiver and grit her teeth knowing that he is just back there sitting behind her.

Lightening laughs, "That's a good answer but not the one I'm looking for. Although that might work for some demons. Kamiki, what works best against a spirit demon?"

"Rot and Plant elements."

"Very good Kamiki you get a gold star."

"What? Shiemi's not a plant." Rin looks confused.

"I think he was referring to Nee Rin." Says Shiemi taking her greenman down off her shoulder.

"Nee!" It says.

"Oh, yeah that makes more sense." He blushes embarrassed.

"Alright well I can tell this is boring you guys. It's boring me too." Lightening says as he crumples up the paper and throws it just left of the wastebasket. "Shoot! That's why I didn't try out for the basketball team." He snaps his finger sending one of his sylphs to burn it. "I'm going to pair you all up for a homework assignment. Each team will build an elements table and label all the corresponding parts. In order to receive a full score you will need to represent each element in a different form. For example you could represent Rot by using some simple mold or even capturing a coaltar if you felt adventurous enough. Your teams will be picked randomly by me, so let's see. We'll have Kamiki and Shiemi, Rin and Shima, Takara and Miwa, and lastly Suguro and Wilk."

Luna nods her head excited to be able to catch up with Suguro again. She twists her finger in her hair and pushes an unruly strand out of her face.

"Alright go ahead and group up talk about what you want to do until the end of class and the assignment will be due this Friday." Lightening leans back further in his chair and puts his hands behind his head.

Luna turns toward Suguro. "Ryuji do you want me to come back there?" He didn't seem to hear her as he was closing up his books and putting them in his bag. Konekomaru had already moved to sit next to Takara and Rin had moved to the seat next to Shima. She didn't want to be that close to Shima but she thought that it may be an advantage for her and Suguro to get Shima's attention so that they could eventually talk to him about the Illuminati werewolves. She grabs her book bag and sits in the seat in front of Suguro turning it so she was facing him and could also see Shima.

Suguro looks up from his book bag that he was picking up to move. "Oh, I was going to come up there."

Luna waves her hand. "It's ok I saw you had all your books out and I only had the one. So I figured it would be easier for me to move."

"That was very considerate of you."

"Of course."

She adjusts her feet under the table unintentionally kicking Suguro's foot.

Suguro jumps and his chair bumps into the table behind him with Rin and Shima sitting at it.

"Hey careful Bon." Shima says.

Luna leans over the side of the table to look at them. "Sorry that was my fault I accidentally kicked him."

"Oh Bon to scared to play footsy with her?" Shima teases and Suguro starts to blush. "I'll play with you Luna, anytime." He raises his eyebrows at her.

She fakes a laugh and then leans down to shift through her bag grabbing her notebook she uses for summoning's. Plopping it open on the table she flips through it. "Let's see, I know I have a drawing of the table of elements in here." She quickly flips past a page with a sketch of her kissing Ryuji that she had drawn with her name written in as Luna Suguro underneath it.

"What was that?" Suguro asks.

"What?" Luna asks hoping he didn't see her drawing.

"Three pages back. Are you doing research on your wolf to see if it has any elemental attributes?" Suguro brushes Luna's hand as he goes back three pages. She looks up at him and as she does she sees Shima staring at her. He looks away quickly after being caught. Looking back down at the notebook she sees that the next page was of her drawing and she could see it through the paper.

She looks at the book nervously. "Um yeah I was, but I wasn't able to find anything out. It's hard for me to do experiments on my wolf when I can't touch it."

Suguro nods his head. "I could help you with that some time if you want. On a full moon or just on a whim when we both have time for you to summon it."

"That actually would be really helpful. The more I know about my wolf the better I think."

"Yeah, that would certainly make you a stronger exorcist."

She looks up at Suguro. "There is one other thing I want to try, but I'm worried that it might be risky."

Suguro cocks his head. "How risky?"

That gets Shima's attention and he leans back pretending to stretch while listening to their conversation.

"I'd like to try and summon my wolf right before the full moon to see what would happen."

"What do you think would happen Luna?"

"Best case scenario I would just be me in my human form for the night and my wolf would be in another plane like I am when I summon it normally."

"Worst case?"

Luna puts her elbows on the table and rests her chin in her hands. "My wolf loses its ability to recognize people and it hurts someone I care about or I become like the Wolf-man in those old films."

"Neither of the bad scenarios sound very appealing."

"That's why I haven't tried it yet, that and I haven't had a secure place to change since attending cram school. It seems like we are always on the go."

Suguro nods his head. "We'll have to figure something out then. How much time do we have before the next full moon?"

Luna pulls out her phone and looks at a lunar calendar app she had to keep track. "Five days. The full moon is this Friday night."

"Hmm… we will have to brainstorm. Can I call you later on tonight so we can do that?" He scratches his head.

"Yes, do you need my number?"

Shima leans in and interrupts their conversation. "I still have your number from the dance. I can give it to him if you want." He winks at Luna.

Luna shakes her head at him and he goes back to his conversation with Rin.

Suguro lowers his head, looks at his own notes and clears his throat. "So what do we want to get to represent fire for our elemental table?" He says changing the subject.


	8. Chapter 8

"I know that you want to work on our table of elements for Lightening's class but can we study the history of Jerusalem together later on today too? I'm feeling a little rusty." Asks Luna on her and Suguro's morning run.

"Sure, I've got something to do after class so could we get together around six?"

"Six would be great. I could really use the extra help. We should get together a little study group. Maybe Konekomaru, Shiemi, Rin, and even Kamiki would like to join us."

"Why do you want everyone to go?"

Luna smiles and rubs her face with her forearm pretending to wipe sweat away so Suguro doesn't notice. "I don't know, it would just be nice to study all together."

Suguro looks at her with an arched eyebrow. Yeah, okay I'll check with them." Suguro wipes a bead of sweat from his nose.

"Hey guys!"

Luna and Suguro both turn their heads to look behind them.

Luna puts her hand over her eyes like a visor so that she can see more clearly. "What the Hell? It's Shima."

"Shima's never up this early." Suguro says turning forward again.

"The two of you are up early." Shima yells.

Suguro hollers back at him. "We are always up this early to run."

Shima catches up to the two of them and pushes his way in between them. "Hey Wilk can I talk to you a second?"

Luna looks at Shima not sure what to make of this encounter. "Sure I guess. What do you want to talk about?"

Shima looks at Suguro, "Would you excuse us for a minute?"

Luna looks at Suguro and he looks back at her. She shrugs her shoulders at him. He grumbles running faster to give her and Shima a moment.

Shima runs beside Luna in silence.

Luna looks over her shoulder at him. "What is it you want Shima?"

"I just wanted to wish you a Happy Birthday."

Luna stops in her tracks.

Shima overshoots her and has to turn back around. "It is your Birthday isn't it?"

Luna nods her head. "Yes but how did you know?"

"A little birdy told me."

"A little birdy?"

"Yeah, and that little birdy wanted me to give you this." Shima pulls an old DVD-R out of his pocket.

Luna looks at it and tries to make light of the situation. "Did you make me a home movie for my Birthday? How sweet." Luna says as she takes it from him.

"I told you it's not from me. It's from the birdy." Shima runs off to catch up with Suguro.

Luna looks at the label. It reads 'Happy 16th Birthday Luna! Love Mom.' Luna starts to shake and feel the world spin as if she were going to throw up. She staggers and then reads the label again. 'Love Mom'. "What the Hell?" Luna looks up to see Suguro and Shima chatting. 'Should I go ask him what kind of sick practical joke this is?' She thinks to herself. 'No! I have to see for myself.' She runs back to the direction of the girls dorms clutching the DVD-R in her hand.

"Hello Luna." Someone waves at her.

She answers without looking up. "Good morning."

She plows up the stairs and unlocks her dorm room door. She looks at her roommate's bed. 'Good she's left for the morning.' Going to the back of the room and sitting at her computer she wrestles with the old CD tray to come out. "Come on, come on." It opens slowly and she puts the DVD-R in the tray, pushes it back in and stares at the computer screen.

A message pops up on the screen. 'Play DVD, Yes or No?'

Luna clicks yes.

The DVD starts. It's fuzzy at first like an old VHS tape. It slowly comes into focus and Luna can see the form of her mother on the screen in her lab coat, crouched over a cage. Her mother speaks to the caged animal. "Alright No. 227 this is my daughter Luna." The video shows Luna's mother showing a photograph through the cage bars. "When she turns sixteen you can meet her. Okay No. 227?"

"Okay, Dr. Ward"

"Very good now eat your food so you can grow up to be big and strong when you meet her."

"Yes, ma'am big and strong."

Luna is startled by the voice from the cage. Not because the voice was scary, but because she assumed that what her mother was talking to was an animal. The voice she heard come from the cage was that of a boy.

Luna's mother walks over to the next cage revealing in the video the boy. Luna guessed that he was about eight or nine. His hair was tussled as though he hadn't washed in days. He wore a green jumper and he looked like a picture Luna had once seen of her father. He sniffed at his food and then laid down in his cage.

The video pans over and Luna sees another caged boy. He is about the same age as the other subject but this one is wild, shaking at his cage and biting at the bars. "No. 329 this is my daughter Luna. When she turns sixteen you will get to meet her."

No. 329 reaches out from the bars and tries to take the photo from her hands.

"No! Use your words 329." Luna's mother shakes her head and pulls away the picture.

"Mine! My wolf. Mine, I Alpha." Says No. 329 in broken English.

"You'll have to prove it to her when she's sixteen." Luna's mother smiles and turns off the camera.

Luna rewinds the video and watches it again. This time she sees that the boys both have a second set of ears. Not human ears, but wolf ears. Luna pauses the video and stares at her mother's face on the screen. "Oh my God! Mom what were you doing?" She notices there is more to the video so she pushes play.

This part of the video is time stamped and it looks like a security feed. There is no sound but a light blinks on an alarm system. Luna's mother runs to get the two boys from the earlier video out of their cages but this time they are not boys they're wolves. She opens the cage door for No. 227. 227 lets Luna's mother pick him up and take him to a car waiting outside her laboratory door. She runs back to let out No. 329 he bites and scratches at her when she opens his cage. She manages to get a mussel on him and get him in the car. She slams the door, nods to the driver and the car speeds away without her. She stares out the door not turning around when Lewin Light 'Lightening' comes into the lab.

Though she cannot hear him Luna can see that Lightening is speaking very aggressively to her mother.

Her mother turns to Lightening and is just as animated. Waving her arms about and giving him the bird.

Igor Neuhaus steps into the room angrily shouting. He keeps pointing at himself and then at his wedding ring. Even though Luna's Aunt Michelle had been dead for years he never took it off. He seemed like he was getting ready to summon one of his ghouls when Luna's father approaches her mother from behind in his wolf form.

Neuhaus nods his head towards the door.

Luna's mother turns to see what Neuhaus is gesturing at.

Luna's father stands before her seething, his hair on end and bearing his teeth. She can see him bark angrily.

Luna's mother pulls a gun from her lab coat and aims it at her father's wolf.

"Mom! What the Hell!" Luna yells at the computer.

She speaks keeping the gun on him.

Her father's wolf does not back down, instead he throws his head back and howls. She shutters at the sound giving Luna's father just enough time to leap on Aurora knocking her and her gun to the ground. She reaches along the floor trying to retrieve the gun.

"No mom stop!" Luna cries out.

Luna's father bites down on her throat and holds her to the ground as she thrashes around. When she stops struggling he lets go.

Luna yells at the computer screen again. "No Dad. Oh God Mommy!" She starts to cry banging on the computer desk with her fists. "What the hell is wrong with you two? I thought you loved each other!"

Blood gushes from the neck wound. Luna sees her mother gargle her last words and then she lies motionless.

Luna's dad looks at the body of his wife, and throws his head back in a long howl. Luna imagined her dad howling, "Aauurrora"!

Neuhaus walks up to Luna's father kneels down and wraps an arm around his upper body.

Lightening scratches his neck and looks around the lab for clues. Walking over to some of the lab equipment he pulls a vessel from a dry ice chamber that has the inscription M. Neuhaus.

Luna's Uncle Neuhaus runs over ripping the vessel out of Lightening's hands. Yelling he lifts it over his head smashing it down on the ground. He then runs back over to Luna's mother kicking her lifeless body.

Luna's father lunges at him guarding her body from further attack.

Lightening just watches them, with his arms crossed shaking his head. He then pulls out a lighter summoning a small group of Sylphs. They fly around him and then buzz out the door to pursue the vehicle that got away.

The video fades out and comes back like it was spliced in. It is now time stamped for seven in the morning. Luna can see her dad transformed back into a man. With his back to the camera he scoops up Luna's mother and rocks her body back and forth. He presses his face against her kissing her cheek and then he tips his head back screaming in agony.

Her father then looks at the floor and reaches for something. Sliding it across the floor he lifts it up. It is the gun, covered in Luna's mother's blood.

Luna grabs at the computer monitor. "No, Dad!"

He puts the gun to his temple and looking at her mother's lifeless body he pulls the trigger.

"DADDY!" She bangs on the computer monitor as tears stream down her face. "DADDY!" Luna crosses her arms laying her head down on them and cries out loudly. "Why…Daddy!"

It takes her a good twenty minutes to compose herself. She still shakes with grief as she paws at her face wiping away tears from her eyes and moisture from under her nose. Grabbing a tissue she dabs at her face and stands blowing it. Pacing the floor she thinks to herself. 'Why the Hell did Shima have this?' It takes her several minutes to come to the realization that she was out of time. That the Illuminati would be coming for her today! She runs back to her desk to grab her phone. Dialing Suguro's number, it begins to ring. "Come on, pick up!" She says impatiently.

"Luna? What happened to you? You didn't even come to catch up with me to finish our run."

Though he sounded frustrated with her his voice was very comforting to Luna's ears. "Ryuji? Are you alone?" Her voice still horse and nose still stuffy from crying.

"Are you okay?"

She does not respond instead she sniffles her nose.

"Yes I'm alone. Do you need something?"

"I need you to come up to my dorm room."

"I'll be right there."

"I'll meet you at the door." Luna hangs up her phone grabs her room key and runs down the stairs.

There are a few girls up and moving around but no one that Luna knows so she wasn't worried about them noticing Suguro come up to her room. Suguro approaches the door and Luna opens it for him.

"Suguro!" One of the girls call out from the stairs. "What are you doing up so early?"

"Oh, hey Himari. Wilk here is going to let me borrow a book for one of my classes."

"You could have borrowed my book." She bats her eyes at him.

Luna shakes her head.

Suguro blushes, "Well it's not a school book but I still need it for a class. It's a book from an American author so Wilk is going to help me translate it."

Himari frowns at Luna. "Lucky girl." She bounds off.

"Always the popular one aren't you." Luna says still shaking her head.

"I don't know why. I only have one class with her."

"Come on Ryuji. What I have to show you is on my computer." Luna grabs his forearm and leads him up the stairs.

"Geeze, slow down Luna what could be so important."

Luna unlocks her door and closes it once she and Suguro are both in. She walks over to her computer chair and pulls it out. "Sit."

Suguro sighs and rubs his ear. Walking over he sits down. "So what is it?"

"Shima gave me this video when we were running together." Luna leans over him and starts the video.

"I don't get any pretext?"

Luna shakes her head and sits on the left side of her desk. "Just watch."

He watches it very intently without making a sound. At the end when the video fades into darkness Suguro looks at her. "Luna? Was that your mom in an Illuminati laboratory?"

Luna shakes her head.

"And that was your father's wolf ki…" He stops midsentence realizing what he almost said.

Luna's eyes start to water.

Suguro pushes the computer chair out from the desk and standing up he pulls Luna's face into his chest.

Luna starts sobbing as Suguro strokes her hair and leans against her head with his chin.

"It's okay. Shh… It's okay... It'll be okay."

As Luna slowly starts to pull herself together she pulls back from Suguro's embrace. "Shima said a little birdy gave this to him. On the outside of the CD is a message from my mother wishing me a Happy Sixteenth Birthday."

"Wait, today is your Birthday? I had no idea."

"Yes, I'm sixteen today, but Ryuji did you hear what I said. My mom and dad have been dead for seven years. There is no way she sent this DVD to me. The other thing that bothers me is what my mom said in the video. 'The wolf boys would get to meet me when I turn sixteen.' So I think it's a message from the Illuminati telling me that my time for thinking about whether or not I'm going to help them with their experiments is up." She shakes her head slowly running her hands through her hair on either side of her temples. "I had no idea when I said I would come out of hiding that they would come for me so soon. What should I do? Should I go willingly or should I run and hide?"

Suguro puts his left hand on her shoulder and the other on her cheek. He then sighs and looks at the blank computer screen. "I think that we should consult with Lightening."

Luna slumps her body sliding off the desk groaning. "Really?"

Suguro puts his hands beneath her underarms and pulls her back up onto the desk. "Yes, he'll know what to do. We can't do this alone Luna. As much as I'd like to protect you myself an exorcist never works unaccompanied."

Luna shakes her head and sighs. "Okay, let's go talk to Lightening."


	9. Chapter 9

Suguro and Luna stand at her door while Suguro pulls out his keys from his pocket and looks for the key that leads to Lightening's office.

"Wait, shouldn't we call first. I mean what if he's sleeping. It's still pretty early."

Suguro shakes his head. "It'll be fine. He wakes me up all the time for stupid stuff anyways." Suguro puts the key in the lock and they walk into Lightening's office.

The room is dark except for a desk light at the back of the room. Above the desk a huge Diagram of the Demonic Elements. Luna makes a mental note of it as she would like to get one for herself. To the left was a pile of laundry and a couch which Lightening snored away on.

Suguro walks up to the couch and pulls away the blanket. "Time to go to work Lightening!" He speaks loudly.

"Gah! Awe, man! Come on Suguro I was having the best dream about a girl with a huge backsi…" Lightening looks Luna's way. "Who's that?"

"It's Wilk." Suguro says folding the blanket and putting it on the back of the couch neatly.

"The wolf, huh?"

Luna lets his wolf comment roll off her shoulders. "Yes, professor Light I have something to show you."

In the little light there was Luna could see Lightening's eyes flash under his bangs. "Really? Is it demonic?"

Luna looks at the DVD-R in her hand, "In a way, I guess."

"Very well let me see it." Lightening motions for Luna to come forward.

She does so. "Do you have a computer with a CD-rom?"

"Do I?" Lightening scratches his head. "Suguro does my laptop have that capability?"

Suguro walks over to the desk grabs Lightening's laptop and looks at the side. "Yes."

"Bring it here and turn on a light would you it's darker than the inside of a cow in here."

Suguro takes the laptop over to Lightening and then goes back to the front of the room turning on the light.

"Alright Wolf, let's see what you brought me to look at." Lightening motions for her to hand over the CD. Taking it from her Lightening looks at the label on the CD and then up to Luna. "Happy Birthday!" He smiles sarcastically.

Luna rubs her arm and clears her throat. "Thank you professor Light."

He opens the CD-rom and inserts the DVD-R. The volume on the computer is up so loud that Luna has to cover her ears after the first two words are spoken. Lightening turns it down without looking away from the computer screen. When the second part of the movie comes up he moves his bangs from his face brushing them off to the side revealing is deep blue eyes. When the DVD is done he scratches his head and closes the laptop.

He looks at Luna his deep blue eyes still uncovered staring her down. "Wilk, how long have you had this?"

"I received it an hour ago."

"Who else has seen it?" He leans forward on the couch getting up from it.

"Just the three of us as far as I know."

Lightening ejects the DVD-R from the CD drive puts it back in the case and then hands it to Luna. "Here you keep that. You may need it later on." He looks at Suguro, "Suguro where did you put all my files? There is something I need to show Wilk."

"They are over here in the filing cabinet." Suguro walks over to it and opens the drawer. "What do you need me to pull?"

"Do you have my confidential files in there too?"

Suguro looks over, "Some of them probably if you didn't have them labeled as confidential."

"Are they in there in alphabetical order or by date?"

"Alphabetically."

"Then the file will be under Karol Wilk's name."

"Why do you have a file of my dad? I thought you told me he wasn't under suspicion." Luna says.

"Well originally we had to have a file on both of your parents because we didn't know who the informant was. Until your dad unearthed a secret and told the Order about it."

Suguro yells over from the cabinet. "I can't find the file."

Luna yells back over to him. "My dad's name starts with a 'K'."

"Oh!" Suguro looks in the filing cabinet again. "Here it is, Karol F. Wilk." He walks over handing the file to Lightening.

Lightening flips through it quickly scanning the report. "Ok, I need the one on Aurora Ward too. Apparently the report was broken up into two parts." He looks up at Suguro, "and grab Neuhaus's file while you're at it." He pulls a group of stapled papers out of the file and hands them to Luna. "Read this."

Luna grabs the papers. "What is it?" Luna looks at the document and sees the date. "November 2nd 1998? That's the date of my birth." She looks up at Lightening. "They were under suspicion that long?"

"Huh? No, that's just a record of your existence. Your dad was the first werewolf to the order so we kept a file on him from his first day in class to his last mission."

Luna looks down at the papers and thumbs through them. "Married Oct. 20th 1997. Died April 10th 2006." Luna uses the back of her arm to wipe a tear from her face.

Lightening watches her as she reads the document. "Suguro did you find those other fi… Oh!"

Suguro slaps the other two files in Lightening's hand before he can finish his sentence. "Are you okay Luna? I mean I can make some tea or something."

"Ah… Maybe later Ryuji." She looks up from the document and at the files Suguro just brought over to Lightening. "Are those for me too?" She looks Lightening in the eyes. She can tell he is uncomfortable matching her gaze when she is so emotional.

"Oh, ah… yes." He hands her all three files in total.

"Thank you." She sits on the floor and spreads out the files.

Lightening looks at Suguro. "I'll have coffee if you're still planning on making refreshments."

Suguro rolls his eyes at him. "Ah, sure." He then walks over and grabs an electric tea kettle from the far corner of the room and then leaves to fill it with water.

Lightening watches as he shuts the door. "Now that Suguro is gone. Why did you really come here to see me?"

Luna looks up from the documents on the floor. "That CD is obviously not from my mom but from the Illuminati. My guess is that they are planning on taking me today to the laboratory. What I need to know is should I go willingly or should I go back into hiding?"

Lightening scratches his head sending his bangs back down over his eyes. "What does your 'wolfy' instinct tell you that you should do?"

"Well I don't know if it's my wolf's instincts or not but I feel the more we can learn about the Illuminati the better. However if I do go I want to know that you and Ryuji have my back." Luna leans back on her hands so she can see Lightening more clearly.

Lightening scratches his chest. "How far are you willing to go Wilk?"

"Deep enough to uncover eighteen years' worth of secrets." Luna picks up the file under M. Neuhaus. "How did you work with such a monster?" Luna says looking up from the document to Lightening.

"Your dad was actually a nice guy."

"I meant my mom you asshole." Luna covers her mouth. "I'm sorry it just slipped out." She bows.

"Ha! I've got nieces and I've heard them say worse things than that."

"Worse things than what." Suguro asks coming back in the room with the kettle now full of water and three cups.

"Your girlfriend here just called me an asshole." Lightening smirks and tries to egg Suguro on.

"Luna! That wasn't very nice." Suguro says, surprised at her.

"It was an accident. I said I was sorry."

"In all fairness though Lightening. You are an asshole." Suguro says plugging the kettle in.

Lightening laughs. "Okay Luna I'll have your back. When is the next full moon?"

Luna counts silently as her lips move she waves her finger in the air. "Four nights from now."

"Then we will give you three nights to collect as much information as you can and we will come get your wolf on the fourth night." Suggests Lightening.

"I don't like that plan." Says Suguro. "What if they sedate or imprison her. I think one of us should go under cover with her."

Lightening strokes his chin and fusses with the hairs at the end. "What about Shima?"

Luna's body stiffens and she shakes her head. "I don't trust Shima as far as I can spit."

"Hear me out." Lightening says waving a hand in the air. "The reason I say Shima is one because we already know he's a double agent for the Illuminati. Two he knows your wolf. Ergo he would easily be able to get reassigned to whatever laboratory they transfer you to and we could track you via him. Maybe we can have him scratch our backs for a change."

Luna looks at Suguro. "What do you think Ryuji?"

Suguro sits down on the couch puts his elbows on his knees and runs his fingers through his hair sighing loudly. "I'll talk to him."

"Try and be discreet about it until you know if he's on our side or not." Says Lightening, "We don't want him getting suspicious and blowing our cover to the Illuminati before we can make our move."

Suguro leans his chin on a hand and nods his head.

"Luna you study as much of that as you can within the next few hours. Then you need to prepare yourself for their coming." Lightening says looking down at her on the floor.

Luna reaches her hand out to Lightening. "Thank you professor Light."

He takes her hand and shakes it nodding his head. "I need to run some errands I'll try and be back before you leave Wilk. You two behave while I'm gone."

Luna shakes her head looking back down at the reports on the floor.

Suguro stands up from the couch. "Do you need me to go with you?"

"No, you can stay here with Wilk. I won't be long." He grabs his poncho and scarf heading out the door.

Luna paws through the papers trying to keep them organized but still sorting them by subject matter. "Ryuji, it says here in my mother's lab files that she was successful with fertilizing two werewolf female eggs with two werewolf male sperm to make hybrid werewolves."

"Where would she have gotten the werewolf eggs from?" Suguro asks sitting next to her.

Luna picks up the report with Neuhaus's name on it. "She used my Aunt Michelle's eggs."

"What! Isn't that a big deal to harvest? I mean how did she get them?" He takes the report from her hand. He reads the report out loud. It was written in Luna's mother's hand.

'It was easy enough to convince her that I could isolate the gene that could prevent her children from becoming werewolves. As a result we were able to harvest fifteen eggs from her. She and her husband are anxious to start their family but I have been able to hold off their suspicions by telling them that it may take some time.' Suguro skips further down. 'After the Blue Night our planned incubator M. Neuhaus has died ruining our plans to further our research and make a more aggressive and humanoid wolf. We will have to proceed with 227 and 329 as previously planned. Perhaps even bringing on project 16-L. Time will tell.'

Suguro takes a deep breath and whispers under his breath. "Oh my God!"

Luna nods her head. "I know. It makes me sick, thinking my mother could do these offal things to my father, his sister, Uncle Igor and ultimately me." She throws some papers on the ground and growls, "The succubus!"

Suguro puts the report down and turns his body toward Luna. "It's okay. Lightening and I will bring you back. Nothing will happen to you. I'll make Shima promise."

Luna takes a deep breath looking at Suguro. "You know Ryuji, I really admire you. Your strength and sense of justice is a rarity. I really like you a lot." She then sits up and wraps her arms around him in a hug. Before she pulls away she kisses his cheek.

He stiffens, with his eyes open and stares at her as she pulls away.

"I've been working up the courage to tell you that since we fought the soul eater." She blushes and stands up. "If I never were to see you again I would have regretted not saying that. I understand if you don't feel the same way about me." Grabbing her DVD-R she walks out of the office.

"Hey! Ah, Luna!" Suguro yells as she is shutting the door.

She runs quickly down the hallway. This was no time to get her head wrapped up in romantic ties. She had a mission to fulfill that was eighteen years in the making.


	10. Chapter 10

Luna comes around the corner of the corridor her heart still racing from admitting her true feelings to Ryuji. Looking out in front of her she sees Lightening coming up the stairs. "Professor Light!" She waves.

"Oh Wilk, I didn't miss you that's good." He pulls a prepaid phone out of his pocket. "Take this with you. I programed Suguro and I's numbers in it for you. Let us know as much as you can through texts. If you ever feel like you might be compromised wipe it with this." He holds an industrial strength magnet. "You would just simply put them together in your pocket."

Luna eyes the two items and takes a deep breath. "Do you ever get scared when you go on missions professor?"

His blue eyes twinkle under his bangs. "Yes, demons actually terrify me. But even if I can't help being scared, it's unbearable not to get close. It's almost like being in love."

"I see." Luna blushes thinking of what she just did to Ryuji. That was wrong of her and she wishes she could take it back. "Thank you professor Light." Luna doesn't know what possesses her but she hugs him. It was a very awkward hug as he didn't even attempt to hug her back. She takes a breath in and then quickly pulls away. "Oh yuck! You smell like the south end of a north bound cow." She waves her hand in front of her face.

Lightening laughs, "I've never heard that before. I'm going to use that saying sometime."

Luna opens her hands to take the phone and magnet from Lightening. "I'll see you in three or four day's professor. If I don't…" She grimaces squeezing the magnet in her hand. "Then you make sure to bring the Illuminati down, and keep Ryuji out of trouble for me." She then proceeds to run down the stairs and across campus to the girl's dormitory.

When she is out in the day light she pulls out her own phone and looks up Shima's number. She still had it in her phone from when they went to the dance together. The message she sent him read. 'Hey Shima, its Wilk. Can we meet in an hour at the fountain? I want to talk to you about my birthday present.'

Luna gets up to her room grabs her toiletries and quickly takes a shower. When she had gotten back to her room there was a message from Shima on her phone.

'Meet me there in twenty minutes.'

Luna looks at the time it came in at. "Crap I have less than ten minutes to get down there!" She throws on some warm clothes and loads her gun putting it in her bra's harness. Then grabbing her scarf and jacket she runs out the door.

When she comes up to the fountain Shima is already there waiting for her. She tries to be nonchalant approaching him. "Hey Shi…" She slips on some slush and nearly falls.

Shima grabs her arm. "Whoa, Wilk are you okay?"

Her feet keep sliding out from underneath of her, eventually she regains her balance. "Damn shoes. Yes I'm fine now. Thank you." She smiles.

He shakes his head and let's go of her hand. Reaching into his coat pocket he pulls out an envelope. "Here." He says handing it to her.

"What is this?" Asks Luna.

"I'm just the messenger. You'll have to open it to find out." He slides his hands in his coat pockets and starts to walk away.

"Shima!" Luna calls out.

He stops and looks over his shoulder at her.

"Thank you for wishing me a happy birthday."

"Huh? Oh ah, you're welcome." He then proceeds to walk away.

Luna opens the envelope. Inside is a Pasmo card with a note telling her to go to Shibuya station. She looks at the stationary the note is on. "Is that an old English D? Are they sending me home?"

Luna makes good time getting to Shibuya station. Ducking into a bathroom stall she texts Lightening and Suguro with the prepaid phone Lightening gave her. 'I met my contact a little less than an hour ago. They gave me an envelope with a note telling me to go to Shibuya station. I may be mistaken but reading further into the note gives me the feeling that they will be taking me to Detroit Michigan. I assume my next contact will be here in Shibuya. I will txt again when I know more.' Luna puts the phone deep in her pocket opposite of the magnet. She exits the bathroom and stands among the hordes of people in the station.

She pulls out the prepaid phone to check and see if they had responded to her yet, as she does someone brushes past her. She feels a slight prick to her arm. As she looks down at it her vision becomes hazy. She starts putting the phone away and it drops to the ground. 'Shit!' She is unaware if she swore out loud or not. Bending over she pulls the magnet out of her pocket and drops it on top of her phone on the ground. She hears gasps all around her and then all fades into silence as the world goes dark.


End file.
